Piano
by Yuri Hannah
Summary: Gray has mixed feelings with the piano that suddenly showed up in their living room one day. [Oneshot]


They have been married for ten whole years.

They have known each other since childhood.

Yet, Gray _still_ can't understand what goes around in Erza's mind.

Oh she was definitely a wonderful wife, a reliable comrade and basically everything he had been wishing for ever since he confessed to her under the warm sunset by the river, that was for sure.

One thing he hoped was that if she ever accepted his heart and opened up to him, he could finally be able to understand her better.

But in this case, he really can't understand why there was a freaking PIANO in the middle of the living room. He was pretty sure neither of them knew how to play. And Erza had never expressed interest in music besides singing in that play for a job request they did all those years ago (Okay, they may or may not have completed requests similar to that because of Erza's temporary interest in musicals but nothing about musical instruments).

"Gray! You're finally back!" Erza practically ran to give him a big hug and a peck on the cheek.

Gray couldn't hold back his smile. This was the life really. It was the kind of married life he pictured with Erza for a long time - in fact, it was MUCH better than he imagined - because Erza was much more affectionate than he could ever imagine even during one year of courtship. It was actually considered too short of a time for them to date and get to know one another to the other guild members but Gray wanted to make up for the YEARS it took for him to confess, so he didn't waste time proposing. To his surprise, Erza agreed, saying she'd never find anyone as loyal and loving as Gray ever again, so she'd be dumb to not accept (which had Gray flustered for days).

His wife scanned him before sporting a look of approval. "Oh, you're coming back from a job without a scratch for once."

"It was an easy job, of course I'd come back without a scratch!"

"I guess this means you didn't bump into Natsu and start a fight for no reason."

"Hey, I'M the one giving him scratches!" Gray paused, "Wait a minute, that's not the point! Why is there a piano in the middle of the living room?!"

"Isn't it beautiful?! I'm going to play it to our baby!" She beamed as she softly rubbed her stomach.

Gray was so incredibly weak against the sparkles in her eyes but had to say something. "But Erza, you don't know how to play the piano."

"There's always room for learning! And I will learn for our baby." She declared. "You can join me too, Gray!" She gave him a big slap on his shoulder and grinned.

He couldn't win against that look. Erza always had a knack for persuading him. When they were kids, she used her overwhelming physical strength to drag him to join her on missions and whatnot. As teenagers, the armored beauty simply used her cutting words making it almost impossible to argue against her (except a few times, when he wouldn't back down with his beliefs and Erza couldn't help but let him do what he wanted).

Then he fell in love and all Erza had to do to persuade him to do things he never thought he would do was to show off those sparkles in her eyes whenever she was excited about something new and hoped he would come along.

Erza probably didn't realize that at some point she didn't have to resort to forcibly dragging him. (And he realized maybe, just maybe she thought of him as someone special because she only asked him to join her and no one else. So in his point of view, they were having dates since way before he confessed).

Gray sighed but gave his wife a soft smile. "Well, I suppose learning from a lacrima piano will be easier." He said as he sat down, quite excited to tap the piano keys.

"Lacrima piano?" Erza asked confused.

Gray turned to her. "Wait, this is a non-lacrima piano?"

"Of course, I must learn with my own strength after all."

He smiled. "Well I'm sure a regular piano is at least less expensive than a lacrima one." Erza suddenly had a robotic look. "It IS less expensive, right?"

"…maybe? Regular pianos are rare nowadays, it should be a given they're a bit expensive, right?"

Gray sighed. Erza had always been quite the spendthrift, finding new armors almost every month. She just couldn't resist. She had the money so it was up to her to spend on whatever she liked.

But now they were married with already one daughter and a son coming up, she would spend so much on them when their daughter wasn't even all that interested in wearing tons of clothes in the first place (and she had a tendency to lose them, damn Gray and his stripping habit was apparently inheritable).

They weren't strapped for cash or anything; in fact they were quite well off – with both Erza and Gray going on S-Class job requests together quite frequently until Erza was pregnant with their first child.

"But this piano will be worth the money, I'm sure of it!" She declared as she curled her hands into a fist (out of habit) and banged on the piano key. The sounds of the piano erupted in protest causing both husband and wife to flinch.

"Why is there a piano in the middle of the living room?"

Gray and Erza turned to see their nine-year old daughter at the doorstep.

"Violet! How was school?" Her mother asked brightly. Then her face quickly changed, "you didn't get into another fight, did you?"

Gray could feel his sweat dropping. Erza always had to make sure her husband and daughter weren't fighting unless it was for job requests.

"No! I did what you said and ignored that boy." She said as she closed the door and walked towards them. Erza smiled proudly as she gave her a brief side hug.

"Should've beaten that bully to a pulp." Gray muttered.

"Why, so that boy can receive the same treatment you did?" Erza teased, making him think back to his embarrassing behavior as a child.

"Hey, YOU were the one that beat me to a pulp, you were the bully!"

"What are you talking about? It was self-defense." Erza simply responded.

Violet had told them (after lots of prodding) that a boy was annoying her lately and always picked a fight with her at school. Gray had asked if he was Natsu's son but Violet denied, saying she didn't even know the name of the kid and why that boy seemed to hate her.

Gray cringed when he remembered what Erza had responded that day.

" _Hmm..maybe that boy secretly likes you?" Erza had said out of the blue._

" _Hah?" Violet raised an eyebrow doubtfully. "That makes no sense."_

" _I know, right? That's what I thought about your father too."_

Erza ended up telling their daughter about Gray's embarrassing history of trying to get her attention by challenging her to fights he was obviously going to lose. It took a lot of convincing on his part that - for a long time he was in love with her for the scarlet-haired woman to accept him, (one of them was admitting that he probably liked her ever since they first met) so there was no way Gray could deny it when Erza told their daughter Gray had a lousy way of getting her attention because he liked her.

Violet agreed that it was indeed lousy and immature, to which Gray hastily defended himself that he was just a kid and kids being immature is totally normal.

But hey, if he didn't do it, there was no way Erza was going to talk to him so…it worked for him…sort of. (He was friend zoned for a long time but Gray was going to bury that tragic part of his love life forever. He didn't think Erza would bring it up again).

"He didn't bother me today so it was easy to ignore him." Violet shrugged. "So where did the piano come from?"

"Your mother wants to play for your new little brother."

Violet had a brief horrified look on her face.

"What?"

"Mama, if you're going to play like you did just now; my new brother might come out deaf."

"I'm going to learn!" Erza defended herself.

"From who? Papa?" Violet couldn't help but sport a doubtful look. Gray shook his head.

"No, your father would be worse than me."

"Hey!"

"Regular pianos aren't easy to learn by yourself, Mama." Violet reasoned gently. "You should just rest a bit more while you can before my brother comes out."

Sometimes Gray couldn't help but be stunned at Violet's maturity. As she grew older, Gray saw more and more of Erza in her, and a touch of gentleness Gray had rarely seen from Erza when they were children.

Gray was glad that their lives had been much more peaceful and happier ever since Zeref and Acnologia had been defeated all those years ago. Zeref, the source of all the tragedy that had happened towards Gray and Erza in their childhood, had forced them to mature at a young age.

Gray prayed every night that Violet wouldn't have to go through anything they had.

"I could hire a teacher or something." Erza pouted, snapping Gray out of his thoughts.

For some reason, both Gray and Violet pictured the worst case scenario of a violent, pregnant woman raging on a poor, defenseless piano teacher.

"No." They both answered. But Gray quickly added, "Coz you know…I'm not spending money on a teacher that probably isn't even good enough to teach you."

What was worse than Erza raging because of her hormones was a _crying_ Erza. It was still his biggest weakness.

Violet rolled her eyes at her father's excuse.

"I already bought the piano! If I don't play it, who will?" Erza whined.

Violet let out a deep sigh. "Papa, scoot over."

Gray and Erza were momentarily stunned. But Erza's look quickly changed to an excited one. "Get off, Gray." Violet was already pushing Gray away with her tiny hands.

"Hey!" He was sure both mother and daughter get a kick from bullying him.

As the notes hit their ears, Gray and Erza were transfixed as their daughter's little fingers gently caressed the ivory keys. A beautiful melody resonated in their home, so different from the usual bickering sessions from none other than her own parents that would result in laughter.

When the melody gradually came to a stop, an explosive applause came from Violet's side. Her mother was actually tearing up and clapping at the same time.

"I had no idea my baby could play like that!" Erza cried as she smothered her daughter in hugs and kisses.

Violet let out a small smile. She glanced at her father who was just gaping in awe. "Papa, you're going to drool."

Gray reddened in embarrassment and quickly snapped out of his trance. "Okay, where did you learn the piano?"

"They teach it at school."

"They teach regular piano at school? How did we not know this? Since when? Erza stop suffocating the girl she can't answer me."

Erza loosened her hold but still didn't completely let go. Her daughter was too amazing! Now if only Violet learnt her Requip magic too. But her daughter only wanted to learn Ice Make as she wasn't all that interested in armor like her mother was. Of course, Erza was proud of her daughter learning Ice Make, she always thought Gray's magic was very beautiful.

But still, she wanted to teach her daughter the few things she knew she was good at. Looking at Gray teaching Violet sometimes made Erza jealous. How was it that she was jealous of her own husband? Even though she was way stronger than him?

"There weren't enough lacrima pianos when they first started teaching so the teacher let me play on a normal piano. Then once there were more lacrima pianos I said I didn't want them." Violet shrugged.

Erza nodded in understanding, the proud look never leaving her face."Okay, Violet. I approve. You will be my teacher as of today." She declared, to which Violet replied that her mother would still have to take care of her health if she was going to teach her.

"Erza, you don't have to learn. Look, Violet can play for our baby."

Erza pointed an accusing finger at her husband. "Why, are you jealous? That I will be spending quality mother-daughter time by letting her teach me?"

"Pfft – I was already spending father-daughter time when she said she'd learn Ice Make over your Requip!" Gray scoffed.

Violet was expecting her mother to argue back but instead was met with the sound of instant sobbing. "He's right! Baby why won't you learn my magic?! I want to be a good mother and teach you things too!" Erza tightly held onto her daughter.

Said daughter shot an annoyed look at her father who was instantly flustered and panicking. "Um…uh –That's not - "

 _Use-less,_ Violet mouthed to her father.

"Hey!" Gray indignantly rejected the claim.

Thus, ten whole minutes was spent on Violet wiping her mother's tears and reassuring calmly she was the best mother in the world, while Erza declaring she wouldn't kiss her husband for the rest of the week.

"Did you hear that Gray? I think our baby likes the piano! He definitely kicked just now!" Erza's eyes sparkled again.

A soft smile graced his face, yet the ice-make wizard was internally hoping he would at least get an ally out of his son in the future, or else he'd never win in this house with both his beautiful wife and daughter ganging up on him.


End file.
